Radiator



March 29, 1960 J. A. SARTORI ET AL RADIATOR Filed Jan. 18, 1956 INVENT .Il-III..

ATTO R N EY RADIATOR Application January 18, 1956, Serial No. 559,921 1 Claim. (Cl. 257-124) 'I'his invention relates to heat exchangers such as radiators or convectors and more particularly to an improved header and header assembly for a convector heating element and to the method of making the header.

Convectors or convector-radiators, whether they are mounted in a wall or in a cabinet, customarily have a heating element comprised of a plurality of spaced tubes to which a series of fins are attached. The ends of the spaced tubes are connected through hollow headers to the steam or hot water pipes of the heating system. Headers have been commonly made of cast metal construction; however, this type of construction is costly and requires the use of a relatively large amount of metal to form a header of the required strength. The cast metal headers are also heavy and bulky and their connection with the relatively light fin supporting tubes is ditiicult.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to .provide an improved header and header assembly for a heat exchange element and ing such a header.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a compact and lightweight header fora heat exchange element.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a header for a heat exchange element which is relatively easily manufactured.

Another object of the present invention is to provide in a tube type heat exchanger, a header which is easily attached to the heat exchanger tubing.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved header for a heating element which requires a relatively small amount of metal.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved header for a heating element and a method of making such a header which requires a minimum amount of machinery.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved convector heating element.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved sheet metal header and an improved method of stamping out such a header. v

Other and further objects of the invention will be obvious upon an understanding of the illustrative embodiment about to be described, or will be indicated in the appended claim, and various advantages not referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employment of the invention in practice.

y A preferred embodiment of the invention has been chosen for purposes of illustration and description and is shown in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the specication, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a convector in the form of a cabinet radiator with part of the cabinet being broken away to show one end of the heating element and the header connection with it;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of a portion of one end of the heating element and the header with a portion of the header broken away to show the interior of the header;

an improved method of maknited States Paten 2,930,590 Patented Mar. 29j, 1960 Fig. 3 is a vertical section of the header taken generally along line 3 3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectionjof the header takengenerally along line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of an end of a tube forming a part of the heating element; and

Fig. 6 is a perspective of the stamping from which the header is formed.

Referring now to the drawings, the convector 10 is comprised of a heating element or heat exchanger 11 encased in a cabinet 12 or other conventional enclosure well known in the art.

The heating element 11 has a plurality of spaced copper tubes 14 which carry the hot water or steam and a series of closely spaced tins 15 which are secured to the tubes 14 in such a manner that there is a tight contact between the tubes 14 and the fins l5 providing good heat conduction therebetween. Opposite ends of the tubes 14 are connected to hollow headers 17 which are provided with fittings' 29 to receive hot water or steam pipes 32 from the heating system. The header 17 acts as a manifold in distributing or collecting the hot water or steam from the tubes 14.

To form the improved header 17 by the method of the present invention, a sheet metal blank is stamped into the configuration shown in Fig. 6. The finished stamping 19 has symmetrical depressed portions 20, 20 on opposite sides of an equally spaced from the central axis,

a-a of the stamping. Channels semi-cylindrical, extend across the central portion 27 from one depressed portion 2i) to the other depressed portion 20. A peripheral flange or edge zone 22 extends in a single plane around the entire stamping and lies in the plane of the undepressed portion 27. When the stamping 19 is severed along the axis a-a and the'two halves 24, 24 are placed face to` facefthe depressions'Z, 20 cooperate to form a chamber 25 and the channels 21, 21 cooperate to form the passageways 26 adapted to receive and hold the ends of tubes 14. The two halves of the peripheral liange 22, together with the undepressed portions 27 form contacting lianges or marginal portions about the chamber 25 interrupted only by the passage- Ways 26. L

Since the channels 21 form deep depressions, stamping two separate sheets, each forming one of the halves 24 21 which are preferably of the header independently without tearing,.distorting orv warping the material of the sheet would be most difiicult. ln the present invention, this diiculty is avoided, and the manufacture of the header is simplified by utilizing the one-piece-stamping 19 which has the depressed portion 2i) on each side of axis a-a and the channels 21 extending across the axis a-a from one depression to the other. By this means, the channels 21 which are transverse to and extend to the edge of the halves 24 are formed at the portion of the stamping 19, and there are no depressions along the edge of the stamping 19 to cause distorting, tearing or warping.

A circular opening 28 is provided in one of the depressions 20 for receiving and connecting the hot water or steam pipe 32 to the unit. A fitting 29 has an end portion 30 inserted in the opening 28 with the end thereof lspun against or otherwise fastened to the header to provide a steam tight connection either with or without the use of solder or other sealing material. If desired, both halves 24 may be provided with fittings 29. The other end of the fitting 29 has an internally threaded portion 31 which receives the supply or return pipe 32 from the heating system; however, if desired, other suitable connections known in the art may be made.

The two halves of the stamping are placed face to face and welded, soldered or otherwise secured together along the edges 22 and 27 to form a steam tight unit interrupted only by the passageways 26 which receive the 'ends of the pipes 14. In order to properly align the tubes 1 4 and to make a connection which will resist any tendency of the tubes 14 to rotate in header 17,

the passageways 26 of the header'may be provided with diametrically opposite longitudinal grooves or channels 35, 35 which are'adapted to mate ,with diarnetrically locatedins 36, 36 (Fig. 5) on the ends of the tubes 14. The channels 35 and the fins 36 cooperate to form a better connection and to lock the pipes 14 against rotation.

The tins 36 on the tubes 14 also provide for a close t between the tubes 14 and the header 17 without requiring the channels 21 to have sharp longitudinal edges between their semi-cylindrical walls and the anges 22 or 27 which sharp edges or corners would tend to break the `sheet material and be required in order to form a completely circular passageway 26. Thus, reversely curving the walls of the channels 21 into the flanges 22 or 27 or the rounding of the longitudinal edges of the channels 21 provides for a better and easier formation of the one-piece stamping 19 and at the same time provides grooves or channels 35 to cooperate with the tube tins 36 in the attachment of the tubes 14 to the header 17.

It will be seen that the present invention provides an improved header for a heat exchanger or the heating element of a convector or convector-radiator type of e heater. A header is provided which connects the plurality of hot water or steam tubes in the heating element to the connecting piping of the heating system in an improved and more efficient manner. The header of the present invention utilizes a minimum amount of metal and has a minimum weight so that material savings are made both in metal and in convector space. When the heater of the present invention is used, the reduction in size and weight of the header is made without a corresponding reduction in the size of the hot water or steam passageways so that the header is capable of handling the same heating requirements as the presently used heavier, more bulky and less easily manufactured headers.

An improved method of making the header has also been provided which simplifies its manufacture by reducing the number of steps required to produce the header and by reducing the number of machining operations from the number normally required for the present types of cast headers. The stamping step in the manufacture of the improved header has been reduced to a single operation in which both sides of the header are formed in a single blank appropriately shaped for subsequent cutting and fastening steps.` Additionally, the header of the present invention has a design which facilitates the stamping operation so that relatively simple dies may be used having relatively shallow and rounded contours throughout, thus preventing distortion, tearing or warping in the stamping of the metal blanks.

` As various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the parts herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and without sacrificing any of its advantages, it is to be understood that all matter herein is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

lIn a heat exchanger, a header, a plurality of tubes connected to said header, said header comprising two sheet material members having cooperating depressed portions forming an enclosed cavity, said members each having a flange surroundings its depressed portion such that said anges are in face to face engagement, each of said members having a plurality of substantially semicylindrical channels extending across its ange, each of said channels having its wall merging by a reverse curve into the adjacent ange, the channels in one member cooperating with the channels in the other member to form passageways opening into said cavitykfrom the exterior of said header, the facing reversely curved wall portions forming grooves extending longitudinally of said passageways, said tubes extending one into each of said passageways and having diametrically positioned longitudinally extending ns located in said grooves and holding said tubes against rotation in said passageways, and means sealing said anges to each other and said tubes in said passageways.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 763,663 Edmiston June 28, 1904 1,143,412 Loughridge June 15, 1915 1,472,146 Winkelmuller Oct. 30, 1923 2,085,313 Guthrie June 29, 1937 2,113,060 Sandberg Apr. 5, 1938 2,153,657 Brown Apr. 1l, 1939 2,320,621 Lefebre June l, 1943 2,366,374 Whitesell Ian. 2, 1945 2,462,136 Smith Feb. 22,1949 2,615,565 Bower et al. Oct. 28, 1952 2,699,960 Callery et al. Jan. 18, 1955 2,835,513 Pearson May 20, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS France' June 21, 1950 

